-LRB- CNN -RRB- -- When Howard Chiou went to Taiwan for his grandmother 's funeral , he had another dead person on his mind -- the cadaver he was dissecting in his anatomy class . The Emory University medical student kept dreaming about who this dead man might have been when he was alive .

`` It was at the funeral that I learned that one of my uncles had the ability to see ghosts , '' said Chiou , sharing his story at Carapace , a monthly oral storytelling event in Atlanta .

`` During the entire funeral , my uncle 's there giving a play by play of what my grandmother 's doing in spirit form , '' telling guests that she was happy they were present .

After the funeral , the uncle listened to Chiou 's dreams and suggested a diagnosis of `` spirit attachment '' and treatment for the body 's restless spirit . As Chiou led up to the last day of his anatomy class three years ago , Carapace 's standing room only crowd waited on pins and needles to hear if he applied his uncle 's treatment to the body .

Atlanta residents Randy Osborne and Joyce Mitchell started Carapace more than a year ago as a local chapter of the Moth , a New York City-based oral storytelling group with a growing number of programs around the country -LRB- and a few in other countries -RRB- .

The Atlanta group , which broke away from the Moth and held its first independent event last month , is one of a growing number of oral storytelling groups across the country telling true stories before a live audience . Many people in the audience usually make up the potential list of storytellers for the night .

Veteran Carapace storyteller Tim Banks , a retired Delta employee , shared the tale of a hawk that kept vigil with mourners after his brother 's funeral . Only after hawks continued to visit him did he mention it to his sister-in-law , who told him that his brother loved hawks and would stop the car to watch them anytime he spotted them .

Atlanta advertising executive Ben Yaun , a first-timer at the event but a teller of stories within his family , held the audience captive with a tale of an enormous , attacking snapping turtle that took over a fishing trip from his childhood .

`` It was prehistoric , I tell you , it was prehistoric ! '' he shouted to laughter from the audience .

`` There 's no other type of performance really where the audience becomes the performer and becomes the audience again , '' Osborne said . `` There 's the intimacy of telling a story without any notes . You 're singing your own song and telling your own story . You 're getting up there and finding your way in front of the audience 's eyes . ''

Carapace rules are simple : Put your name in the hat and you might get picked , tell a personal story , keep it to five minutes , no notes , no political rants , no poetry , no grudges , no propaganda . Have a beginning , middle and end . Know the last line of your story . Pay your tab . Check out Carapace 's Facebook page for the complete set of rules .

Author George Dawes Green gets a lot of credit for the recent growth in oral storytelling as performance . Green founded the Moth in 1997 in his New York loft , inspired by nights with friends drinking Jack Daniels , playing poker and telling stories at his friend Wanda 's home on St. Simons Island in Georgia . The group was named after the moths that would sneak through the rotten porch screens , drawn to the lights .

`` Storytelling seems to be in our DNA , '' said Green , author of `` The Juror , '' `` Ravens '' and `` The Caveman 's Valentine . '' `` Stories are the ways in which we can impart dense clusters of information glued together by emotion . It 's really how we learn about the world in a way we can grasp and remember . ''

The Moth has grown into a nonprofit with professional staff that runs storytelling events and competitions in New York , Los Angeles , Detroit and Chicago -LRB- with more cities to come -RRB- as well as storytelling training for corporations and high schools and community centers in underserved neighborhoods . There is also a Peabody-award winning Moth Radio Hour on public radio .

Oral historian Stephen Sloan says oral storytelling speaks to our identity as human beings , and he is n't surprised at the recent popularity of true stories told live .

`` Before technology , storytelling was how you knew what was meaningful , how you had any deep understanding of who you were and what your place was in the world , '' said Sloan , a history professor and director of Baylor University 's Institute for Oral History .

`` It was the way those ideas were communicated to us . That same thread is in these stories , the unscripted nature of it , the reality of it , the rawness of it . Something significant and very deep is conveyed through the relating of experience . ''

Those stories attract large crowds to Moth 's flagship Mainstage programs in New York and elsewhere . The Moth staff chooses a theme and invites five people from all walks of life -- some known and some not known to the audience -- to tell 10-minute first person stories on stage , said Moth artistic director Catherine Burns .

Although the stories are n't strictly memorized , the artistic staff helps the storyteller to frame stories so they know where they 're going with their tales . `` It takes an enormous amount of work but that 's what we 're dedicating to doing , '' Burns said .

As the Moth has grown and partnered with interested storytellers to launch `` MothUP '' affiliates in various cities around the country , a few local groups have chafed against rules more recently required by the national organization . The Moth intended MothUP affiliates to help create Moth StorySLAMs , which are the Moth 's storytelling competitions , in those cities .

The local groups in Atlanta and St. Louis have created communities of storytellers who have found a family , where a laugh or nod tells the teller that he has connected with the audience . The members were n't as interested in competition .

Founders of both groups found they were violating other Moth rules : They had too many people attending to fit into a living room -LRB- a location requirement -RRB- and neither wanted to charge admission . Atlanta did n't want to have judging . St. Louis gave preference to first-time storytellers .

`` We open the stage to anyone who wants to tell a story and we try to fit in as many stories as we can , '' said Stacey Wehe , a founder of the St. Louis group , now named the Saint Louis Ten .

Both sides describe the parting as amicable .

`` We underestimated what the demand would be , which is a luxury problem to have , '' Burns said . The Atlanta and St. Louis groups `` got to a size that was n't what the program was supposed to be . We did n't want to hold them back but we were n't ready to launch a slam there . We hope we 'll do more in those cities eventually . ''

Back at Manuel 's Tavern in Atlanta , where Carapace holds its free monthly get-togethers , any storyteller who did n't get picked to speak was invited to come up on stage at the end of the evening to share their first , last or best line .

Carapace 's Osborne says it tends to be a popular part of the program , and that June night is no different . Atlanta resident Shannon Turner , who was raised in the oral storytelling tradition in Appalachia , has the crowd wanting more with her single line : `` And that , my friends , is how God kept me a virgin . ''

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Carapace is an oral storytelling group that has people tell true stories before an audience

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Rules : Tell a personal story , keep it to five minutes , no notes , no political rants , no poetry

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The Moth runs storytelling competitions in New York , Los Angeles , Detroit and Chicago